In response to Pakistan’s politically motivated decision to expel more than 100 Turkish school teachers, Amnesty International’s South Asia Director Champa Patel said:

“With 24 million Pakistani children out of school, Pakistan’s decision to expel teachers from the Pak-Turk International Schools and Colleges will only hurt Pakistan’s children.

“What the country needs is more classrooms and more teachers, not a politically-motivated decision to purge educators at the behest of the Turkish government.”

Background

Pakistan has ordered more than 100 Turkish teachers from the PakTurk schools to leave the country by the end of the week.

The order comes as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is visiting Pakistan.

The PakTurk schools deny the Turkish government’s allegation the network is linked to Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, currently in exile in the USA and a former ally of the ruling AK Party.

The Turkish government maintains that Fethullah Gülen was behind a failed coup attempt in July, and has since used it as a pretext to purge tens of thousands of state employees – including academics and teachers – and media organizations of suspected sympathisers and others.